Cause and Effect
by Strange Hearts
Summary: What if... One of the other students who had detention with Umbridge wasn't as prideful and selfish as Harry, and actually did something to rid of Umbridge, which causes a effect that they couldn't have foreseen.
1. Telling the World

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I'm just using it for my own fun. I do own Isobel Trisvinaté, as well as any other original characters who may pop up, as well as the plot of this story.**_

_**Summary: What if... One of the other students who had detention with Umbridge wasn't as prideful and selfish as Harry, and actually did something to rid of Umbridge, which causes a effect that they couldn't have foreseen.**_

_**Okay, this fic is mostly an idea that wouldn't leave me alone, a what if idea that basically questions certain things, not just what's been mentioned in the summary. Some of what will be seen is a What if the ICW had a certain act they've been itching to enact on England, but were unable to do so with Dumbledore has head; what if Fudge was replaced by a more competent minister who had her own ethics code that was pretty at odd with most of the Dumbledore's ideas, as well as the Pureblood factions; and what if Harry learns certain fact that has him beginning to question if Dumbledore actually deserves any of the praise and loyalty he's had, from anyone.**_

_**These are the main three ideas that you'll be seeing, with many little facets to them. As I don't actually have more than a vague idea on how this story is going to go, I might end up confusing people, but I'll try to make it seem flow as much as possible. Some of what goes on may appear a bit out there, but please bare with me, this is an idea for a what if senario, so you probably should definitely expect AU senarios.**_

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**Telling the World**

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The corridors were silent, empty of the students that usually graced it during the light of day. In fact, due to the hour, most of the castle was silent, the common rooms almost completely empty of students, almost all of which were tucked into their beds, falling asleep if they weren't already sleeping.

However, there was one girl who wasn't sleeping, or even in bed about to fall asleep. Instead, this girl had just arrived in her common room, due to the fact that she'd just had detention with one of her teachers. There was glassy sheen over her eyes, suggesting that she was trying not to cry.

_That stupid bitch_ she thought as she made her way over to one of the chairs near the fireplace. Her left hand – her writing hand – throbbed in pain. She looked down at it, seeing the words _ I will not tell lies_ carved into the skin, inflamed and slightly bloody. She read the words over and over again, along with remembering what had caused the need for them to be there to begin with – expressing her opinion that Harry Potter was not lying about Voldemort's return, pointing out that he'd be the last person to proclaim it without it being true.

Professor Umbridge – also known as Umbitch to the majority of the students – had overhead, and had unfairly assigned her detention for saying that. She wasn't sure what to think about that, since she hadn't heard a word of what went on there, other than they had to write lines, but that very night, she learned what it was that Umbitch was doing, the result of which was on her hand.

A wave of anger ran through her. What it was that Umbitch was doing was nothing short of torture, and, without another thought, she pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill. Within moments, she had finished quilling her letters. There was one to her father, one to the editor of the _Daily Prophet_, another to the new Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, and a final one to her head of house, which was her uncle. She chuckled to herself as she thought about what Umbitch's reaction would be when her head of house showed her the error of her ways. After all, she was Isobel Trisvinaté, of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Trisvinaté. And, while the other Most Ancient and Most Noble Houses with heirs – or heads, as Harry technically was – in the school didn't seem to be doing anything – then again, from what she saw, Harry didn't seem to show a sign of what knowing his heritage – she wasn't going to be like them.

However, remembering who backed Umbitch up, Isobel knew that she would need more than to just tell her head of house. Having learned of how things were often swept under the rug at the Ministry, and also knowing that Fudge would make sure that what she had to say would never see daylight – and he wasn't above going over his station to do so – Isobel knew that she would have to employ every inch of the Slytherin that the Sorting Hat had sensed in her in order to get what she needed to get done. And she could hardly wait to see the results of her work when they came to be. More than that, though, knowing what would happen once it became known what Umbitch had done to her, was the fact Umbitch would get her just desserts.

_I cannot wait to see that bitch put in jail, where worthless beings like her belong_ she thought as she sealed her letter up, and called her personal elf to her. After all, she wanted the letters to get to where they needed to, not be found by Umbitch. Then, dreaming of what the consequences to Umbitch would be, she fell asleep, a happy smile on her face.

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_**I know, this is a short preface, but it's not a sign of how each chapter will be. I'm going to at least try to get chapters close to being three thousand words before I even consider posting them, though the first few chapters might just barely come close to that. **_

_**At the moment, the chapters for this are coming out pretty quickly, though I won't be posting them all at once. I want to know if the story is worth continuing before I make a commitment to continue it.**_

_**Please, please, please review, it's the only way I'll know if you like the idea or not.**_

_**Strange_Hearts**_


	2. An Editor's Reaction

_**I am so glad that most people seem to like it, based on the number of Alerts the story has already been given, though I was hoping for more Reviews than Alerts. Still, it seems that people do appear interesting in this story, so I am definitely going to be willing to post up some more chapters to it - so long as the story appears to be going good, I will continue working on it.**_

_**Now, I had a request to put up two characters for this story, but I'm not going to, especially considering what the pairing asked for was. Since this story will not have a strong romance to it, I will not post characters, as I prefer doing that only if A) the focus of the story is only on one characters, and, therefore, it makes sense for them to be mentioned; or B) The story will focus on and end in the two characters mentioned in the characters area. As neither of those will be happening at this time, those spots will stay blank.**_

_**Anyway, onto the story.**_

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**An Editor's Reaction**

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Lisa Lords, an editor at the _Daily Prophet_, sighed as she was once again forced to post yet another story about Dumbledore and Harry Potter. She desperately wished that there was something more newsworthy to be allowed to be printed, but knew that, until the Minister – who was leaning heavily on her – got over his little hissy fit, she had to make sure that everything printed was against Dumbledore and Harry Potter, while being for him. Of course, thankfully, she wasn't completely muzzled against tell truthful news, for she didn't think anything said about the two was actually true – neither of them had so much as tried to do what they were being accused of, but then, when one's already being called the worse minister ever, she could see why Fudge would do what he's doing. Of course, like any reporter, she couldn't wait until his attempts blew up into his face, and was more than prepared to make it even worse when that happened. It would be payback for what he was forcing her to do, for everything he had forced her to do, as Rita Skeeter would have never made it onto her staff if he hadn't made it so that she could.

What had her even madder, though, was the fact that, having known Dumbledore back when he was still a teacher, she knew that what she was being forced to say about him was hogswash. All one had to do was see how he was when school started; there was nothing that he wanted more than to pass on knowledge. But no, Fudge – who seemed to think that he could make everyone think this about Dumbledore – had gone off the deep wall, all because Dumbledore – who would have no reason to lie about it – had said that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was back; yes, she knew about that, for her granddaughter had told her. While she wasn't completely sure about it, she was more likely to believe it because of the fact that Dumbledore would have said it if it didn't have a grain of truth to it.

At least she was allowed to have somethings not screened by him in the paper. And, of course, by that, she meant that anything written that didn't concern Fudge, his department, or anyone like the Malfoys. Shaking her head, she couldn't help but think that Fudge was an idiot for being so close to a death eater – and she knew for a fact that Malfoy was one, as he had been the one to kill her children during the war, a fact that he had no problem bringing up, in subtle ways.

As she read through the latest story handed to her, she was surprised when an elf popped up beside her, handing her a letter before popping back out. It was surprising because, other than _Prophet_ elves, she hardly ever got letters from any elves. What was even stranger, though, was how well dressed and kept this elf was. It had on a uniform, not quite made of clothes, but definitely not a pillowcase or anything of the likes as she normally saw.

Shaking her head she picked up the letter that the creature had left, eyes widening as she read whom it was from. The Ancient and Noble house of Trisvinaté was one of those houses whom everyone had to pay respect to, no matter of personal opinion. Not even the Minister would dare to cross the house, unless he got bad information from Malfoy to do it, which, thinking about it, Lisa had the feeling that he would eventually.

Opening the letter, her eyes widened upon seeing the contents. Biting her lip, she wondered if she could get away with doing this, but then, coming to the part in the letter mentioning that she'd sent it to quite a few people, including governments such as the head of the DMLE and the new head of the ICW (though Lisa couldn't understand why she'd send one to them) meant that she didn't really have to print out the letter. Still, she had the feeling that she needed to, if only to show that Isobel wasn't right in labeling her a coward if she didn't do it.

The problem would be doing this in a way to keep the minister from not keeping the letter from being seen. She was a bit thankful to know that it couldn't be added to the prophet just yet, as it would help give her time to decide how to approach this. She'd hopefully come up with an idea for the next _Prophet_ edition the coming day. She spent the entire morning wondering about it when her assistant, Mandy, came into the room, eyes wide and looking harried.

"Have you heard?" Mandy said, then she saw the letter in Lisa's hand. "You got one as well?"

"What's going on?" Lisa asked. "And of course I got one, everyone did."

"Apparently, Fudge has been sent quite a few letters and Howlers, all asking for his resignation," Mandy shared. Lisa's own eyes widened.

"Really?" Lisa asked, not needing to know why. The answer for that one was already in her hands after all.

"Really," Mandy stated. "Apparently the fact that Umbridge was appointed by him and what the letter mentioned about how he'd most likely not do anything to have her punished had an effect of people declaring him to be a useless Minister who just had to go now."

Lisa looked at her, then at the letter in her hand.

"Get Laura up here, now," she finally said, looking up at Mandy. "And have the pressers ready. We're going to be sending out a special edition today."

"Understood," Mandy stated, hurrying from the room. Lisa looked at the letter in her hand, and then smiled as she placed it down onto her desk. Gathering her quill and parchment, she headed to the Ministry, hoping to be able to know what was going on there, as well as get some quotes from the Minister, and, perhaps, Umbridge as well, if she was there – which, truthfully, Lisa expected her to be.

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_**Okay, here's the second chapter. I decided to give a little insight to the minds of a Daily Prophet editor/reporter - not the main one, but one of them - on what they think about a good bit on what's happening, as well as a reaction to what my OC Isobel's letter that was sent out. I didn't write the letter, though, because I could think of how to word it well enough to appear official enough to be taken seriously. You can pretty much guess the basics of it, though, from having read the books, as well as the hints of what I mention being read in the chapter itself. **_

_**The next chapter - I think - goes back to Hogwarts, where the Daily Prophet articles about the letter will be mentioned. As I may have mentioned before, I actually do have several chapters already written out for this story, so I do have somewhat an idea of what's definitely in the next chapter.**_

_**Please, Please, Please, Please, Please Review, I want to know what you think of this chapter.**_

_**Strange_Hearts**_


	3. Special Evening Edition of the Prophet

_**Okay, I actually meant to post this up a bit earlier, but since I use two different computers - one with internet and one without - I tended to forget to make sure I have the flash drive the story is on before moving to the computer with internet. Now, the few who have reviewed still seemed to like this story, though I have had some who don't agree with some of the things I've put so far. Since this is not only how I see the HP world, but also fanfiction, I don't think everything needs to be the way others see it, since I'm the one writing the story, not them. **_

_**Anyway, here is the third chapter - and I will tell you now that you probably will see another way I'm taking artistic license with the story.**_

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**The Special Evening Edition of the Prophet**

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Confusion rang through the Great Hall as dinner came around. People were looking up towards the staff table, which was missing Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, and the toad, as most of the school thought of her as. There was something strange going on, they just new it. After all, why else would the toad, and the three professors be missing, as they had been for most of the day.

"What do you think has happened?" Harry asked Hermione.

"I don't know," Hermione stated. "But I truly hope that it's nothing bad."

"Well, I wouldn't hope for that too much. After all, if we're lucky, something might have happened to the toad," Ron said. Hermione didn't even scowl at the thought of something happening to her. After the first three classes with her, Hermione did not consider her a teacher, and, therefore, labeled her the same way she had Trelawney – a waste of space in the castle.

"What I want to know is what were aurors doing here earlier," Hermione told them, remembering the several whom they had all seen before they were sent to their common rooms for the morning instead of to their classes. They'd been let out at lunch, but had seen no sign of the aurors at that point, and all had been pretty much quiet.

"I wonder about that as well," Harry stated, but, before he could continue speaking, there was a loud screech as, for the first time since he'd been at the school, hundreds of owls made their way into the hall, going to every student there and dropping off a rolled up copy of what looked like an edition of the Daily Prophet. Confusion rang out once again as the owls made their way out. What was going on?

Hermione, like several other students, snatched the newspaper, unfolding it to see that it was a special edition paper. She read the story, gasping upon seeing what it was.

"Listen to this," she order Harry and Ron, giving them a look suggesting that they better listen.

_**Delores Jane Umbridge: Outstanding Citizen or Child Torturer?**_

_This very morning, I received a very concerning letter from  
one of the students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and  
Wizardry. In this letter, the student expressed her concern  
over the actions of Ms. Umbridge, describing what a single  
episode of detention they had with the madam. They  
informed me of the fact that Ms. Umbridge had them write  
lines repeatedly, until their hands hurt to the point of being  
unable to use it. While not completely alarming, as writing  
lines is a typical punishment at Hogwarts, and some teachers  
haven't caused hands to hurt from excessive writing in the  
past, this time, the knowledge of the hands hurting was, as  
the main point of the letter was the fact that Ms. Umbridge  
wasn't using a regular quill, but a Blood Quill!_

_As any wizarding citizen aware of the law knows, the use of  
a Blood Quill is restricted only to blood required contracts –  
in which a Gringotts representative must be present to witness  
– and is forbidden to be used in any other way. A standard  
five year sentence is carried for the mere possession of owning  
a single Blood Quill, the sentence being added to for each  
additionally owned Blood Quill a person has. On top of that  
sentencing, an additional sentence is carried should the Quills  
be used without the supervisions of a Gringotts representative,  
ten years per adult it was used on, and fifteen for every child._

_I have confirmation that Madam Amelia Bones of the Department  
of Magical Law Enforcement has begun to look into this matter,  
to discover if there is any basis to the accusations, though  
Minister Fudge has reportedly been less than helpful with  
the pushing for an investigation, as he has apparently tried  
to order Madam Bones 'not to bother investigating this nonsense  
when it is more important to search for the culprit of these  
baseless lies.'_

_When asked for a comment, Madam Umbridge had this to say  
about accusation: "I do not know which student it was that has  
decided to spread these lies about me, but I assure you that I  
have not done anything against the law. This is merely the  
words of a disgruntled student who is accepting their detention  
in a poor grace. Truthfully, as I have an idea of which student it  
is, I'm sure everyone can agree with me when I saw that it's just  
another lie from them, as they just want the attention."_

_Minister Fudge also had a comment to this outrage. "Ms. Delores  
Umbridge is an upstanding citizen whom is a valuable member of  
our society. That these baseless accusations are being made  
against her is completely horrid, and the student who is spreading  
these lies will be facing consequences."_

_Minister Fudge is not the only one who commented to the outrage.  
Outstanding citizen Lucius Malfoy also had this to say: "Minister  
Fudge is correct in saying that Ms. Delores Umbridge is an  
upstanding citizen to our world. To see someone not only try to  
drag her good name through the mud, but at the words of a  
disgruntled student, well, it's completely horrible, and makes me  
wonder how our wonderful world could become so turned about to  
even suggest believing these lies."_

_More will be known once the findings of Madam Bone's team are known._

_**For the contents of the letter given to me, continued on Page 5**_

"Wow," Harry stated, grabbing his own copy of the paper, and flipping to look at the letter. It wasn't really long, and just said the main points that had been mentioned in the article, though he somehow got the feeling that there was something missing as well; well, besides the name, which looked as though it hadn't been written at all.

"I think it's safe to say that Umbitch is thinking that you're the one who sent the letter," Hermione stated. "Of course, considering the fact that you refuse to bring it to anyone's attention, I think it's safe to say that you didn't do it."

"No, I didn't," Harry stated. His eyes returned to the part about the Blood Quills being illegal. Besides it was a picture of what one looked like, and he recognized it immediately.

"Yup, that's definitely the quill she used on me," Harry stated. "I wonder who decided to tell on her."

"Whoever it is, they probably know the law pretty well," Hermione said. "I mean, I didn't know this, otherwise, I would have insisted that you send Madam Bones a letter about your detentions, whether you wanted to or not."

"I wonder what'll be said tomorrow," Harry stated, though he suspected that it would just be swept under the rug, doubting that Fudge would let anything happen to his pet bitch.

"We'll have to wait until tomorrow," Hermione stated.

* * *

Tomorrow couldn't come fast enough, but it finally did come. Harry and Hermione were among the first up – Ron choosing to stay in bed, as it was a Saurday – and they went down to the Great Hall, noticing that they weren't the only ones who had gone there early. They made their ways to the first seats at the Gryffindor table they could get, ending up next to the Weasley twins, Katie Bell, and Alicia Spinnet. Angelina Johnson appeared just then, coming and taking the empty seat next to Hermione while Neville, who had followed her, took the one across from Harry. More and more people came down, wanting to know what news would be coming this day from the Prophet, while those there were waiting patiently. Harry noticed, though, that those who were coming down earlier were ones with access to the Daily Prophet.

By the time the remaining two Weasleys came back down, the tables were packed, and they were forced to sit at the other end, away from Harry and Hermione, who were busy talking with each other, not realizing that they'd even come into the room, much to the disgruntlement of the two.

"There here," Angelina suddenly said, her eyes having been scanning the windows every few moments. Almost as one, they all looked up, just in time to see a progresson of owls heading towards many people. Harry and Hermione both snagged their copies of the _Daily Prophet_, while Alicia, Neville, and Angelina did the same. Fred and George both looked over the shoulders of the closet people next to them as they read the headlines.

_**The Auror's Findings: Umbridge Definitely Guilty**_

_As everyone knows, yesterday a letter was received by the  
_Daily Prophet_ about an accusation of Madam Delores Umbridge  
using Blood Quills on students assigned detention by her.  
Despite the objections of Minister Fudge, Madam Amelia Bones,  
with several trusted Aurors investigated the accusations, and,  
much to the surprise of the Minister, discovered a box holding  
thirty Blood Quills in her quarters. When Madam Umbridge and  
Minister Fudge were informed of the discovery, she attempted  
to say that she was being framed, saying that a students must  
have snuck into her office to plant the box as evidence after  
learning of what she was being accused of. This statement  
was quickly revealed to be a lie after the mention that her wand  
signature being the only signature found on the security of the  
box, as well as the fact that where they found it was in her actual  
quarters, not her office as she said. The fact that she was the  
only one aware of where her quarters were – a fact made known  
upon her own mention if it – sealed the deal of her attempts to lie._

_It was also evident that Madam Umbridge had indeed used the quills,  
as one of the aurors had found papers of the lines written by the  
students next to the box, as well as hints of blood upon the tips of  
several of the quills. With this overwhelming evidence, Madam  
Umbridge was quickly removed from her positions of Undersecretary  
of the Minister and as the Professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts  
at Hogwarts, as well as arrested. She was taken to a holding box within  
the Ministry, where she will await trial, scheduled to take place in a few  
days. It is strongly implied that Vericteserum (Truth Potion) will play part  
in her trial, as she had lied in the past and the charges against her are  
too high not to have it._

_When asked to comment, neither Minister Fudge nor Lucius Malfoy  
has anything to say about having been proven wrong about Madam  
Umbridge, a strange fact when one considers their adamant support  
about her having been an 'upstanding citizen' in their previous statements._

_As for the students who have had detention with her, it is also implied that  
they will each have to appear in front of Madam Bones for a short interview,  
which will probably be used in court as well. Whether they themselves will  
appear in court as well is not known at the moment._

At that moment, as the reveal of the sacking of Umbridge was known, loud cheers could be heard from almost the entire school. The only ones not cheering were the Slytherins, who had enjoyed the idea of the Mudbloods and half-bloods being put into their place by her, as most of them had realized was happening within the first few assigned detentions from her. The Slytherins most upset over this change was Malfoy and his crew, who knew that the plans his father had originally suggested happen would no longer be happening.

Once everyone had called down, they looked at the next front page article.

_**Cornelius Oswald Fudge: Will He Be Minister Much Longer?**_

_In a strange twist, this very morning, the office of the Minster of Magic  
was undulated with many letters, most demanding proper investigation  
into the Delores Umbridge matter, an investigation that he still attempted  
to keep from happening. Also mixed in with these letters were demands  
that the man resign from the position, stating that he'd become useless,  
and didn't care about any of the Hogwarts students, and was just as guilty  
as Umbridge was in torturing them. As he clearly wasn't for the  
investigation happening,one does wonder if he was ignorant, or knew  
that it was true and really didn't care about the students, so long as those  
he wanted tortured were._

_As one can imagine, once word spread about the the guilt of Madam  
Umbridge, the letters calling for his resignation doubled, and included more  
than one Howler. The general consensus was clear in that many did not  
have any faith in him anymore, and wished for his immediate removal of  
the Minister of Magic post – a demand, one must note, that has not happened  
since 1745, when the Minister of Magic at the time was discovered to have  
been taking bribes from various other families around, and removed by force  
from the position after refusing to do so, despite the demands of the Wizengamot  
and everyone else. It is clear that Fudge has to be one of the worse Ministers  
to have such a demand made when compared to the Minister of 1745._

_When asked to comment about this, Minister Fudge refused to do so,  
seeming to not have anything to say on the matter._

_Madam Bones, however, did have something to say on the matter:  
"I've told the Minister for years that some of his actions would eventually  
result in what has happened, and I, for one, will not fight for him should  
the Wizengamot decide to remove him from his post. He is a weak man,  
easily manipulated by others, and petty if someone has more fame than  
him and isn't on his side. We have need of a minister who will not be  
manipulated, and who is willing to do what is right instead of what seems  
easy. We also need one that is above doing such petty actions that  
Minister Fudge has done."_

_As for Minister Fudge, with the troubles he is now, we here at the  
_Prophet_ hearby stated that we hope that he will resign with whatever  
little bit of grace he has left, before he actually is booted from the office,  
as I do not believe anyone will willingly let him keep the office. I know,  
if it was up to me, I wouldn't, as I could not, in good faith, keep someone  
who called a child torturer an 'upstanding citizen' in that office._

"Oh, wow," Harry said, turning to look at Hermione.

"What do you think?" he asked her.

"I think changes are coming, big changes," she answered, unaware of just how right she was about that. She just didn't know when these changes would take place – no one did.

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_**Okay, there you go. This chapter - though it has been finished before I even posted the first chapter up - was the one that really took quite a bit of time to write, as I wanted what was said to be as close to perfect as possible, without being unrealistic - I actually had a part in where the journalist who wrote the article made apologies to Harry and Dumbledore for going along with the smear campaign, but took it out after rereading the chapter because it was too unrealistic. I might use it at another point, but there is no plans for it right now.  
**_

_**I considered having this two chapters at one point - again, before I posted up the story - but figured that it would be best to have the articles in one chapter instead. And, as I'm sure you can see, I took artistic license towards a previous Minister of Magic as well as Amelia Bones. I will admit. though, that I do not feel as though how I had Fudge put down with his comments are all that unrealistic, so I don't feel like I took artistic license with him.**_

_**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed how Fudge basically digs himself a hole he's not going to get out of by not only supporting Umbridge, but also trying to stop her from being investigated by Amelia, and trying to instead have the person who told the world about what Umbridge was doing found so that they could stand trial instead of Umbridge.**_

_**Please, please, please review, as I really want to know what you thought about his chapter - the more reviews, the sooner I'll consider putting up the next one - I technically have starting chapter six right now, so I do have at least two more chapters ready to go that I am holding back on posting because I want more reviews.**_

_**Strange Hearts**_


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